Poggle the Lesser
|Died = 19 BBY, Mustafar |Species = Geonosian |Gender = male |Height = 1.83 meters |Mass = 80 kilograms''Star Wars: Head-to-Head Tag Teams'' |Eye Color = yellow |aff = *Geonosian Industries *Confederacy of Independent Systems *Techno Union}}Poggle the Lesser was Archduke of Geonosis. During the clone wars, he was a leading member of the Techno Union and the Separatist Council. Biography Early Life Geonosian Revolt Poggle was a member of the Geonosian lower caste, hence his surname "the Lesser". He sought the position held by then-Archduke Hadiss the Vaulted and organized a revolt against him, which seemed to be of little concern to Hadiss, who easily dealt with Poggle's rebels. That was until the Sith Lord Darth Sidious came to Poggle's aid and secretly funded his revolution. Over time, Poggle's rebels finally seized power and Poggle at last became Archduke of the Stalgasin hive, the ruling hive of Geonosis, and Hadiss was executed in the Geonosian arena. Archduke & creating Grievous Once Poggle was in power, Darth Sidious's intentions became clear: he wanted control of the droid factories to supply B1 battle droids to the Trade Federation for an invasion of Naboo. Poggle, grateful for Sidious's help, gladly struck a deal with the Trade Federation. The fact that Poggle and Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray hated each other but still worked togetherat the behest of the Sith Lord. Shortly after the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo failed, Poggle was approached by the rogue Jedi Count Dooku, revealing himself as Darth Tyranus, the new apprentice of Darth Sidious. Dooku formed a partnership with Poggle; the Archduke would ensure that Geonosis was among the founding worlds of the CIS and would supply a large amounts of battle droids to Separatist Droid Army. In return, Poggle would be paid large sums of money for his trouble and Geonosis would earn a powerful, high place in the Confederacy. This partnership was lucrative; Poggle even took the liberty to create a new B2 super battle droid for the Confederacy. Poggle also assisted Dooku and IG Banking Clan Chairman San Hill with another project: the rehabilitation of the Kaleesh warlord Qymaen jai Sheelal. Poggle's engineers were responsible for the cyborg body given to the injured Sheelal. Following the procedure, Sheelal then renamed himself "General Grievous" and was promoted to Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies.The Eyes of Revolution Clone Wars Battle of Geonosis Ten years after their initial meeting, Poggle the Lesser hosted the first official meeting of the Confederacy's leaders in the Stalgasin hive. The Geonosians captured the Jedi Knight Kenobi, his Padawan Skywalker, and Republic Senator Amidala soon after this meeting, and Poggle himself presided over their trials, charging them with espionage and sentencing them to execution at the Geonosian arena. Senator Amidala warned Poggle that to execute three officials of the Republic was an act of war; Poggle scoffed that as a builder of weapons, he was more than prepared for it. The execution did not go as Poggle planned, but despite the prisoners managing to outwit the arena beasts (and Gunray's constant complaining), Poggle was satisfied by the display, until Jedi Master Windu and several dozen Jedi arrived to rescue them. Poggle's battle droids outnumbered the Jedi and victory seemed sure, until Grand Master Yoda arrived with the newly-commissioned clone army. Poggle and the Separatists retreated to a war room and watched helplessly as the Republic Army, suddenly manned by battalions of clone troopers, engaged their droid army. Poggle ordered his soldiers to retreat and hide, but before he joined them, he turned over plans to the Ultimate Weapon—a secret project he had been contracted to build by the Separatists which would later become the Galactic Empire's feared battle station, the dreaded Death Star—to Count Dooku and erased all data from his computers.Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Following the battle, Geonosis was occupied by the Republic. 2nd Battle of Geonosis Later in the war, the Republic forces were spread thin, allowing the Separatists and the Geonosisians to rise up and re-take Geonosis and other worlds. With his planet once again secure, Poggle made a deal with the Trade Federation, and the Banking Clan to fund a new factory complex. Poggle was present at a meeting on Cato Neimoidia along with Senators Lott Dod and Rush Clovis, representing the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan respectively. Poggle and Dod argued that they should receive a larger share of the profits, but Clovis refused to re-negotiate. To coerce him, Dod secretly poisoned Clovis's romantic interest Senator Amidala, there to attend a supposed diplomatic meeting (and covertly spy on Clovis at the request of the Jedi Council). Though Amidala was able to steal the plans to the new droid foundry, the poison quickly incapacitated her, forcing her bodyguard Jedi General Skywalker to take her back to Coruscant. Clovis, fearing for Amidala as well as himself, offered to help procure the antidote from Dod and Poggle in exchange for the stolen plans. Skywalker and Clovis attempted to quietly leave Cato Neimoidia, but were confronted by Dod. Though Clovis forced him to give Amidala the antidote, at the last minute, Skywalker refused to take Clovis with them to Coruscant. Clovis remained behind to deal with Poggle, Dod and a squad of battle droids. It wasn't long before the Jedi arrived to shut down the new factory. While Poggle remained inside to oversee production, his battle droids and Geonosian warriors defended the ray-shielded factory from an offensive strike led by Jedi Generals Skywalker, Kenobi, and Ki-Adi-Mundi. Geonosian defenses were stronger than the Jedi anticipated, injuring Kenobi, Mundi and forcing Skywalker to take alternate routes to the factory. As Mundi led his clone troops through a Geonosian-infested cave, Skywalker and his apprentice Tano were forced to take down a large wall armed with turrets. The ground forces were soon reinforced by the arrival of Y-Wing bombers and with the path cleared, Skywalker led a team to disable the Geonosian's scanners and allow the AT-TE's to destroy the shield generator. Meanwhile, Poggle's aide TX-21 informed him the factory was operating at 50% capacity and had produced ten garrisons of droid troops. Outside the factory, Jedi General Skywalker was reinforced by Jedi General Unduli and her apprentice Offee. Skywalker and Unduli used their troops to create a diversion at the bridge leading into the factory, while Tano and Offee sneaked in through the catacombs to get inside and destroy the main reactor. In response to the show of force at the bridge, Poggle authorized twenty of his new ray-shielded Super tanks to be deployed and forced the Jedi forces to fall back. Inside the catacombs, Tano and Ofee accidentally woke a Geonosian warrior, who quickly informed Poggle of their intrusion. While the two commanders planted explosives in the reactor room, Poggle and TX-21 arrived with a super tank and several Geonosian warriors. Poggle left them to deal with the intruders and the explosives were quickly disable, though TX-21 was destroyed by a detonator placed on the super tank- which remained unharmed. Offee succeeded in cutting into the tank, and left without detonators, Tano realized the tank would be their best option to destroy the reactor and opened fire. The explosion leveled the factory, but the tank's durability allowed Tano and Offee to survive long enough to be rescued. Following the factory's destruction, Poggle fled aboard an AAT, carrying several boxes of cargo. A single box was dropped, but Poggle ordered his droids to leave it behind and continue pressing forward. Unduli managed to find this box and track him to the Progate Temple, the site of heavy bombardment during the Republic's initial strike. Though puzzled that he would go there, Unduli followed, but was soon captured by undead Geonosian warriors. Under Poggle's command, the Geonosians took? Unduli? deep into the catacombs beneath the temple, where she was presented to the Geonosian Queen, Karina the Great. Skywalker, Kenobi, and a team of clone troopers led by Clone Commander Cody followed Unduli's signal and ventured into the catacombs, only to be attacked by the undead Geonosians. Despite their best efforts, the undead were able to continue fighting even after being dealt mortal wounds, and so Kenobi altered their strategy. As the team entered the Queen's chamber, Kenobi noted that Unduli had been taken alive, and decided to try speaking with the Queen (to the dismay of Skywalker, who still preferred action). After Kenobi attempted to negotiate her surrender, Karina explained that she intended to control the three Jedi, using brain worm parasites. As Poggle attempted to insert a worm into Luminara, the clone troopers switched on their lights, disorienting the Geonosians long enough for Skywalker to free Unduli and slap a pair of manacles on Poggle. The Jedi fled with the captured Poggle, while clones destroyed the arch supports in the cave to slow down the otherwise unstoppable undead Geonosians, burying them along with Queen Karina. Once Poggle and the Jedi reached safety, Kenobi lamented that he wouldn't have a chance to find out how Karina's mind control worked. Following his defeat on Geonosis, Poggle was scheduled to be sent back to Coruscant for trial. Aboard a Republic Cruiser, Jedi Generals Mundi and Unduli attempted to interrogate Poggle, but the archduke refused to cooperate. When Skywalker learned that a supply ship carrying Ahsoka and Offee had been taken over by brain worm-infested clone troopers, he decided to personally interrogate Poggle. Using a protocol droid to translate, Poggle informed Skywalker that mind tricks wouldn't work on Geonosians, as the other Jedi had already discovered. Skywalker angrily knocked him down, telling him that he wouldn't need mind tricks to get him to cooperate. Poggle defiantly told the Jedi that he would never talk, but Skywalker force-choked and levitated him until Poggle finally explained that the brain worms were vulnerable to cold temperatures. Kenobi and the other Jedi were curious as to how Skywalker had managed to get Poggle to cooperate, but he didn't elaborate. Notes & References External Link See Also Category:Separatist Council Members